Lunch Break
by nambnb
Summary: Summer heat, outdoor lunch break, fangirls and headaches.


It was summer and it was hot, nearly unbearably hot without any shadow around. And they had decided to spend their lunch break out in the open, because the old man wouldn't shut up about the weather being so nice. So Barnaby got himself roped into breaking off for lunch in the park closest to Apollon Media.

It was a nice park with the trees pruned to a round shape and the paths free of garbage. The only thing Barnaby took notice of was the sound of the water fountain nearby though, to give himself at least so much as an illusion of coolness while he laid there stretched out in the sun with his circulatory constantly reminding him that a body with a usual body temperature below 36 °C was not supposed to deal with that much heat. Kotetsu had finally taken pity on him after he had nearly collapsed from sitting on the bench the veteran hero had picked for their break and allowed him to rest his spinning head on his lap. And no, he did not want any food, as much as Kotetsu commended the contents of his self-made lunch box, he felt too dizzy and a headache was about to strike him down for good.

The park seemed at least mostly unfrequented judging from the sounds reaching Barnaby's ears while he faced away from the outside. Ther was only the bubbling of the fountain's water and the birds chirping away. Most residents of Sternbild didn't seem to be as crazy as to spend their lunch break in the hot midday sun - not counting Kotetsu of course. The older man had begun stroking Barnaby's hair which felt surprisingly soothing to the blonde. Not to mention that Kotetsu had chosen to sit in a way that his body would spend Barnaby a bit of shadow while he lay there and rested. If it wasn't so hot and if he didn't feel so bad right now, he would have enjoyed the situation a lot more, though.

The feeling of Kotetsu's fingers lightly scraping over his scalp as they dove into his hair and then stroking him so nicely followed up by letting his hair run over his fingers nearly made him purr. The old man had a way with his fingers while combing through his mane, he had got to hand it to him. And now he started massaging his scalp and his temple, oh that definitely belonged into the category pleasing. Barnaby wrapped his arms around the other's hips and snuggled up closer all while keeping his eyes closed and with a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. If the old man wanted to make up for his ridiculous choice of location he was well on the way to achieve that goal now.

The peace of the place stopped dead when Barnaby's ears caught giggling and whispering sounds from a few passerbys. Judging from their voices and the few scraps of conversation he could hear they must have been your usual teenage girls who didn't care whether they were annoying other people or not. But the worst of it all was that they were talking about the two of them and how gay they looked to them. Barnaby opened his eyes and grumbled while his hold around Kotetsu's waist got even firmer and the older man looked down worriedly.

"Are you okay, Bunny?"

"No, I'm not.", he growled, "These chicks are getting on my nerves."

"Chicks?" Kotetsu looked around and finally spotted the trio of girls glancing over, who started to squeal and giggle in embarrassment as he looked at them straight. "They are a good deal away, Bunny, and this is a park, people will pass by inevitably."

"They can pass by all they want so long as they stop talking bullshit about us."

"They do?" Kotetsu looked over to the girls in question again, who seemed to understand this as a signal to come closer.

One of the girls, a tanned one with white eyeshadow and overly full pink lips dared to speak.

"Excuse us, you couldn't happen to be Kaburagi T. Kotetsu?"

"Err..."

That was the downside of once having been wanted for murder and revealing his identity as a hero to counter the false charges against him: Everybody knew who Wild Tiger was now. The good part was he didn't have to hide behind his black half-mask on a hot day like this when he was seen in Barnaby's company. But he couldn't deny his identity when asked about it either, so all that was left for him was an affirmative "Yes" on that kind of question - this time followed by even higher pitched squeals of the girls.

"So we are right assuming that the guy on your lap is Barnaby Brooks Jr.?" The tension hanging in the air was nearly unbearable although the girls must have known the answer already. Kotetsu felt Barnaby's fingerails digging into his back through the textile of his shirt. No, the blonde was not at all comfortable with the attention this time. And even an airhead like Kotetsu got that hint and answered with an unusually serious expression on his face.

"Yes, you are right, but please no autographs or photos, okay? We are on lunch break now, even heroes need some time off, you know?" Wanting to protect Barnaby from having his picture taken against his will, Kotetsu placed his arm infront of him and curled his hand around the back of the blonde's head while shielding his face with his other hand. "Please respect our privacy while we are not on a mission, okay?"

The girls uttered most unbecoming angry snorts as they turned on their heels and strode away, obviously dissatisfied not to have gotten a picture with a hot hero guy.

"They might start to spout nonsense about you in their blogs, Kotetsu-san.", Barnaby finally spoke again.

"What, you mean I got myself some trolls?", Kotetsu made a face as he lifted his hands again.

Barnaby showed him an apologetic look and rose from his laying position to sit next to him.

"Thanks for protecting me."

"Bah, no big deal. I know your fangirls can be like vultures when let loose, but they have no right to ruin our lunch break. It's called a break for a reason after all."

Barnaby smiled, his true smile, not the professional one everybody else knew and Kotetsu couldn't help himself but to return it, if looking a little sheepishly and scratching his head by doing so.

"I think I might try the contents of your lunch box now, Kotetsu-san."

"Oh, really?" The older man seemed overjoyed as he unpacked the box from its thermal packs and opened the lid once again. "It's self-made sushi, I'm not used to the stuff, but I'm trying to broaden my repertoire and cold food on a hot day is better than hot food, right?"

Kotetsu happily held a piece of maki sushi infront of Barnaby's nose with the help of a pair of chopsticks and seemed to wait for him to take the bite apparently. Barnaby wondered whether the older man noticed the gesture of feeding somebody else his self-made food as the behavior of a freshly baked couple. Inwardly shaking his head, he did him the favour and took the bite offered to him. He was surprised that he liked the taste of it. The old man was good with rice dishes of any kind it seemed.

What the two of them did neither hear nor see was the clicking of a camera lens that had taken a snapshot of the scene from behind a bush. The three girls crouching behind the shrubs chuckled quite mischievously as they looked at their trophy. The two heroes feeding each other was nearly as good as kissing in their eyes and way better than just having their photo taken with Barnaby. Just uploading the photo on tweeter with a saucy headline now and everybody would know that Barnaby and Wild Tiger were gay for each other.

"Mouh!"

The three girls nearly jumped as they heard the offended voice behind their backs. As they turned their heads they spotted a black man in a gaudy pink outfit complete with lilac eye shadow and sugar pink lipstick squatting behind them on high heels.

"I fear I have to confiscate that, young lady.", he said and used the still lingering element of surprise his sudden appearance had caused to snatch away the camera phone from the girl. Before either of them could protest he prattled on while viewing the photo.

"My aren't they cute together? But sadly I cannot allow you people ruining their precious moment by fabricating some stupid scoop or something. Much less before either of them has realized what they truly mean to each other."

That said, and seeing that one of the girls was about to attack him for the camera phone now, Nathan set the device ablaze while still holding it in his hand. "Oh no, no, no, I am sure you understood what I said, right? Respecting other people's privacy and so on, I am sure you got that, didn't you?"

Looking at the melting phone open-mouthed, they only nodded as they broke out in a cold sweat and slunked off with raised hands and constant nods while a strained smile plastered their faces.

"I knew you'd understand my point." Nathan waved at them by just wiggling his beringed fingers.

He then turned back to watch the scene of Tiger trying to get Barnaby to eat another piece of sushi, while the blonde man slapped a hand to his face and murmured something about just giving him the box, so he could eat it himself since that was outright embarassing now.

Really, weren't they lucky they had Nathan as their protector, so no one would misinterpret the way of showing their affection for each other? The fire hero was not some kind of a stupid stalking fangirl after all. He just happened to pass by this park and recognize the girls behind the scrubs. And now that he was done defending their reputation as best buddies ever he would leave them alone... or not. No, he couldn't leave already, he would make sure no on else tried to pull a stunt like the three girls before. So he would have to wait for them to end their lunch break. That would be best, right?

Outdoor lunch breaks could be full of pitfalls after all.


End file.
